Hi, everyone!
May I join? I'm 36 and my husband is 38. This is the second month we've been TTC#1. May was a real eye-opener for me. I spent the last 20 years of my life trying not to get pregnant so, of course, I completely expected to get knocked up right away. I don't think I'll have such high expectations in June!
magoodoggy, welcome to the 30 something thread. I hope your stay here is short and that after 20 years of avoiding pregnancy you will get that BFP soon.
librarygirl, sounds like some maybe exciting things may be happening for you soon. Good job on being caffeine free! Which one do you prefer - crocheting/knitting? I know how to crochet and I am trying to get better and better. I haven't learned how to knit yet.
AFM, temp was still "up" but it was still a BFN this morning. I think AF will be here tomorrow morning. Tuesday is the first meeting with the reproductive endocrinologist to see what I need to do to be ready to get pregnant since my DH has such a low sperm count that we need IVF with ICSI. I was just hoping we could get pregnant for free.
Hi, everyone!
May I join? I'm 36 and my husband is 38. This is the second month we've been TTC#1. May was a real eye-opener for me. I spent the last 20 years of my life trying not to get pregnant so, of course, I completely expected to get knocked up right away. I don't think I'll have such high expectations in June!
Welcome, magoodoggy! I understand that completely. :) I had never ever ever had sex when fertile without a barrier (used FAM for the last year before TTC) since I became sexually active. NEVER. I was never that kind of reckless girl who would just "risk" it. I'm still afraid maybe I'm not fertile because I've never tested it.
at the same time- still very hopeful- craving spicy foods like there is no tomorrow and I hate spicy foods. If it had peppers in it today, I ate it. DH says I'm weird this week (I'm cranky and irrational) and a friend saw me for the first time since the wedding and asked if I was pregnant- i told her 9dpo and negative but still too early and she said "oh...i bet you are."
Lilac- hoping you get really good news from the RE really soon. I learned how to knit a few years ago but don't care for it. I'm a crocheter. Our event was really nice. It was hot out but we were under a pavilion and there was a great breeze. Lots of food and friends and beautiful yarn. I've been making a ton of a baby clothes here lately- they are fun and keep me off baby sites....at least a little bit.
welcome, magoodoggy! we're looking forward to sharing the journey with you and providing mutual support. My DH is the same way, every time I mention something which could be pregnancy-related he expects I am knocked up and begs me to "amuse him" by testing. I on the other hand try to hold out until AF is due, which can be a real challenge, especially with a new bag of internet cheapies. Now why did I go and get them if I'm not going to use them? 
How are you doing, Lilac? I hope your RE appointment was useful and you are getting all the info you need in case this is not your month. Has AF raised her ugly head yet? I still have my fingers crossed for you :)
LibraryGirl, crafting outside sounds like a great way to unwind on the weekend. I also hope you have a BFP to share soon.
AFM, after having weird uterine twinges for at least a week, and some bloating/belly poochiness (had some fun with DH as he brought up the subject "Don't take this the wrong way, but are you gaining weight? your waist seems thicker." 
), I had high hopes this would be our month. I had some spotting on Fri, which then stopped, and it kept feeling like AF was going to come all weekend which made it tough to just relax. POAS Saturday (11DPO) to amuse the DH, BFN. It sure felt like something was different this month though.
I was all set to discuss this with my new PCP at a regular scheduled physical yesterday and realized AF was starting just as I was changing out of my clothes in the exam room. Talk about bad timing. Turns out my PCP is pregnant herself and we talked about TTC for a while, but she wasn't interested in running any labs or learning about my charts/cycles beyond knowing they are "regular". Since I am in generally good health and my insurance won't cover any care by a specialist until we have been TTC for a year, this is frustrating but just as well.
Today AF is raging. Before I went on the pill ~11 years ago, I had very severe cramps, and would lose a day every month or two to laying curled up in bed around a pillow being nauseous. A steady supply of hot herbal tea and ibuprofen help get me through the worst of it, but it's death. My mom had similar cramps and both of us found relief with BCP. Since I came off the pill in Dec none of my periods have been that bad, which makes me completely unwilling to even consider going back on them once our family is complete ... until today. I slept in 2 hours and would have worked from home if I had not left my computer at the office. I know I'm not going to be productive today anyway.
I'm trying to see this in a good light as it is a very different cycle and more like my younger days. I'm now attributing all the symptoms of the past week to PMS, which is new to me but a good scapegoat. I'm probably just paying closer attention to my body than I did in my teens and 20s. My other post-pill cycles have usually started with 2-3 days of brown spotting, which never happened before. At the start of this cycle I began taking a B complex in the hopes of optimizing my progesterone as I read that many women on the pill are B6 deficient. With an n of 1, it seems to be working - longer LP, longer cycle, much less spotting, and maybe these heavy cramps mean a thicker endometrium.
Ah well, better luck next time. In the meantime I'm sending all my surplus baby dust hopes to you all! 
Kimble, sorry to hear about the killer cramps. I was on BCP for 12 years for just that reason - cramps that were debilitating and weren't hardly touched by pain meds, hot water bottles, and sleep. Hope for better things for you and your DH this month. Too funny about him being more POAS addicted than you. Especially if you track your BBT, it really isn't worth it to test early. I was reminded of that that the hard way this month. I had done so well resisting for over year of TTC. Good luck this month!
Librarygirl, crocheting is the best! I am not very fast, but I love the creations I make. I am hoping to make some baby clothes once I finally get pregnant. It will happen!
AFM, the RE meeting went well today. More testing for me - FSH since today is CD2 (yep AF showed up yesterday). Thankfully it didn't come early otherwise I wouldn't have been able to get the CD2 FSH test done. Yeah for some small things. Dr. ordered karyotype testing and chromosome testing for my DH (which I think may give us more information about why he only has 25 sperm rather than 40 million or more). DH and I got our blood drawn today after the RE appointment.
The doctor gave us promising visions of doing the IVF with ICSI. He did encourage us to have DH's sperm frozen now so if for some reason the sperm disappear we at least have some genetic material from DH to use while we figure out when we will actually do the IVF with ICSI procedure. $$$ is a determining factor in that.
Kimble, sorry to hear about the killer cramps. I was on BCP for 12 years for just that reason - cramps that were debilitating and weren't hardly touched by pain meds, hot water bottles, and sleep. Hope for better things for you and your DH this month. Too funny about him being more POAS addicted than you. Especially if you track your BBT, it really isn't worth it to test early. I was reminded of that that the hard way this month. I had done so well resisting for over year of TTC. Good luck this month!
Librarygirl, crocheting is the best! I am not very fast, but I love the creations I make. I am hoping to make some baby clothes once I finally get pregnant. It will happen!
that.
:( on the cramps. I try not to complain about them too much because I usually have 24 hours of fairly painful cramps but never been more than "take some advil and get on with your life" type. I have several friends who spend a day in bed/take vicodin/etc with cramps so I always feel like i have no right to complain when mine aren't that bad.
On the crocheting- baby stuff is great because it goes so fast! hats and booties and even sweaters and dresses just fly by and just think how cute your LO will be dressed in clothes that you made!
posted this on the ONE thread as well.
AFM- still in the TWW. 11dpo with sore boobs, nausea and a wicked spicy food craving. BFN this morning and I did have some light spotting today (a bit mid-day but gone with wiping and the same again this evening after DH and I DTD). spotting was light light pink with a lot of CM, not brown or red. I've been researching the heck out of this and it looks like a lot of people with BFN and spotting at 11DPO still get BFPs so I'm prepared for AF to show up but until she does, I'm hopeful! If it is AF starting up, i'll be irritated because I finally got my LP back to 14 days and if she arrives tomorrow, that means it's shortening again. I don't have any cramps like I always do the night before AF starts so....FX, please!
Never mind..I'm out. AF showed up this morning, complete with the cramps.
Sorry to hear that, librarygirl! that would have been a great wedding gift.
Better luck next month and FX this LP was just short by random variation. Still, 12 days isn't bad.
Lilac, best of luck to you and your DH. to me IVF sounds like a royal pain and $$$ so I'm sorry that may be your best option. Would be nice if they could just concentrate the sperm and inject them. Maybe if his count keeps going up?
Hey ladies, just popping in to say thanks for all the great advice about PCOS and diet. I've looked into it and will be definitely taking my Vitamin B's more regularly and sorting my diet, but I'm going to try and not take it all too seriously. I just don't want to get too wrapped up in it all and not be present in just living life, you know? I'm still waiting to O, should be any day now but who knows!
lilac - I'm so sorry this wasn't your month, your chart (I was stalking) looked really promising. Glad the appointment went well though! 
rebekah, I hope some of that diet changing will help you.
AFM, I just called my RE and my FSH was 6 which the nurse said was within the normal range. DH's results on his cystic fibrosis screen were negative so that is a very good thing. Still waiting for his chromosome testing to come back. Tomorrow is the sperm freezing procedure. I sure hope there are lots of little swimmers to preserve tomorrow.
A funny thing from my visit with the RE was that my folic acid levels were high - he even commented that I should only supplement maybe one or two days a week. No problem. I hate popping pills.
Well, let's just say that being in room #2, which was right next to the main door to the andrology lab, and having people sitting in chairs right outside the door did not help the "donation" process today. The "room" was a bathroom with a big recliner and a "wind blowing machine". DH couldn't relax and there was no sperm donation today to be frozen. We rescheduled for two weeks and will be booking a hotel room the night before so we can get the sample to the RE's lab within the 1 hour limit the next morning. Hopefully DH can be relaxed then without having a bunch of people right close by.
Looking forward to a better weekend.
Lilac, the pressure!! That stinks that there was no sample, but ugh, how could a person get in the mood? I wonder if a lot of guys walk out sheephishly, past the lines of chattering people, with an empty cup. Thinking of you, sending you all the best wishes for this new cycle. And happy that your DH does not have cystic fibrosis.
Rebekah, thinking of you. I hope the diet helps! PCOS is no fun.
Librarygirl, sorry to hear. At least statistical probabilty is on your side this month so there aren't any potential health issues to mull over just yet. Wishing the best for you.
AFM, I was trying to hang out on the TTC After Loss boards so I wasn't such a bummer over here. But they are really prolific and I can't keep up- lots of very in-depth and personal discussion. And very frequent. You all are more my pace for internet posting. Today is 26 days after my miscarriage started in earnest. I have been reaaally hormonal the past 10 days or so (or I just have a lot of feelings to deal with and am not doing it very well). I decided not to temp and boy howdy, at this point do I wish I knew what was going on in my body. The MC was as long as my period and acted a lot like it, even though I was about 8 weeks along. So I kind of expect AF to just start back up at 28 days just like normal, ticking right along. Part of my thinks I might be pregnant again. Part of me thinks that AF will take a few extra weeks to show up. I wish I knew, but for now I have to be satisfied with not knowing.
lilac - Oh wow, room #2 sounds super stressful! Your poor husband, that can't have been easy. I think your Plan B sounds like a much better idea! Fingers crossed it all works out next time :)
teamviddy - Thanks friend :) I'm really glad to see you back here, I hear you about fast moving threads and I don't think you're a downer at all. In fact, I think I'd want to be here if I was in your position because this feels a bit more like family. We all post when we can and it never seems to matter if there's a long pause in between - we all just pick back up where we left off. That's why I value this space so much! I didn't temp after my miscarriage (I never had at that point) and I found myself wishing the very same thing. It's so strange going from knowing your cycle so intimately to not having any real idea where you're at. I wonder if in some ways it's our body giving us all the time we need to help us heal physically and emotionally - you know? Thinking of you!
AFM - Still no sign of ovulation, which is really weird for me considering it's CD27 and there's been no sign at all (I usually O around CD20-22). I know there's nothing really I can do, it just feels a bit weird each morning to not see a temp rise!
Hey, I just noticed I'm at 15 dpo! I'm all crampy/pms-ey, so I think I'll wait until 18dpo before I test. Cool! (picture an imaginary happy dance, because it's just too warm for dancing today)
Dangit, AF strikes again. Good luck to everyone else, and there's always July. :)
Meg, sorry to hear that AF struck. Onto preparing for the new month.
AFM, almost ready to O. Got my list of meds for my IVF cycle. I need to check in with my insurance to see how much these meds will cost me. The actual procedures will cost $7000 (and my insurance is supposed to cover 80% of that but I am not sure about the meds).
Lilac, that's pretty good coverage for the IVF, I hope that the news is good about how much of the meds they'll cover! Good luck.
Best of luck, Lilac.
Good luck Lilac! I am wishing for the best for you. And I agree, 80% is not too bad for coverage.
AF started Saturday. Blech. I usually don't get so down about it... I was hoping that somehow I would get pregnant before I even had a period. Unfortunately it looks like the case of the 1x a week BD struck again. I think it's no coincidence that the one time I got pregnant in 8 months was the ONE time that we made sure to not go to meetings, band practice, out with friends, etc during my possible fertile window. My DH is incredibly sweet and sensitive and just can't DTD when his heart's not in it (me, on the other hand... well...). When we set aside time we were able to connect and enjoy our time together. He is searching for a better job right now and we both hope that will mean that he won't be quite as exhausted when he comes home...
Oh, TeamViddy, that is kind of how I feel with my DH. I really want to help him relax so that time in the fertile window can be used for DTD, but his overtime has really cut into his energy when I need it most. I am the one who is "let's do it!" I want to try to get pregnant without IVF but it means we have to DTD when I am fertile window. Argh!!
Follow Mothering